Royal Protectorate of Tampico
The nation that occupies the southern portion of Tamaulipas known as The Royal Dominion, The Royal Protectorate of Tampico is perhaps the only colony founded in the Post-War for a nation that may no longer even exist. Regardless though, with the Union Jack and the rifle, this protectorate has been hard won from all those who would not bow before the English crown. With nearly 5,000 within its borders and a republic fit with a bicameral parliament, The Royal Protectorate of Tampico is quite possibly doing better than the government of the island she claims fealty to. History Founding The Royal Protectorate of Tampico was established with the Reclamation of Tampico of 2167. It was then that the descendants of the crew of the HMS Princess of Lisbon unsealed their ship which had sat in the harbour for ninety years since the bombing and began to march on the town. The tribals living in the port who did not bow down in awe immediately were dispatched by the Royal Marines who promptly made their way to the tallest building in town, the Catholic cathedral and raised a Union Jack large enough to be seen from a quarter mile away. They set up clinics and offered food from aboard their vessel to the tribals as they began to study their bodies for signs of mutation and their customs. They began to teach these tribals, who spoke a corrupted dialect of Spanish, English. In several months there was a village in the docks around the Princess of Lisbon and The Royal Protectorate of Tampico was established, with the British claiming the whole port of Tampico as theirs. Beginning & Expansion From the start, the establishment of a British colony in Tamaulipas was tricky, there were many obstacles from the locals not knowing English to matters of defence. Luckily for the Protectorate, there were able-bodied men of vision, mainly Rear Admiral George St. Clair who was head of the protectorate until the parliament was formed in 2200. Leading the Provisional Defense Force, St. Clair lead the raising of many native units of soldiers, the formation of strong walls of brick and mortar around the city of Tampico, and the defence of the port from a band of Cuban buccaneers just months after the forming of provisional units. For the next decade and a half, the British remained focused on the renovation of Tampico. The PDF continued to scout out land around the city, going as far north as Nuevo Padillo, however, it was the opinion of the board of officers that George St. Clair answered to that before they began expanding they needed to guarantee that Tampico was a stable capital for an empire. Regardless, however, St. Clair waged operations against comancheros and tribals in the areas outlying Tampico in the name of protecting the port. By the time 2199 rolled around, nearly twelve hundred people resided in Tampico. Large parts of the city had running water, electricity, and stable food sources not to mention security. English was the universal language and trade was thriving as the port offered safety to merchants by land and sea. However, with prosperity, there came demands for a new form of government to lead them into the twenty-third century. Demands for a parliament. The Parliamentary Dispute of 2199 The Parliamentary Dispute of 2199 was precipitated by junior officers of the PDF who after serving with native Mexicans in the Dominion and the Saltlands believed they were entitled to representation. The demand was raised at a staff meeting by Colonel Robert Welsh that some form of a parliament be convened, allowing the citizens to vote for representation. Plans were made to draw up Tampico and several outlying settlements into districts where the citizenry would elect representatives. The plan was initially rejected but when news broke, protests broke out in the street. Several units of the yeomanry refused to serve and even fired upon elitist officers. The rejection of representation became seen as a racially-based elitist decision. Citizenship papers were torn up and burned by those who no longer saw themselves as citizens but as serfs. Two hundred people left Tampico and it became dangerous for high ranking English personnel to leave the Princess of Lisbon lest they be greeted by a mob of disgruntled Republicans who were fond of using tarring and feathering as a means of expressing their dissatisfaction with the lack of representation. The Great Compromise of 2200 With the Protectorate seemingly on the brink of civil war over this, the parliamentary debate heated up and seemed in gridlock. Representatives from the yeomanry units of natives coupled with those lower English who felt representation was necessary formed the Provisional Parliament. However, the military board refused to meet with them. Tensions came to a boiling point in March of 2200, when fearing a revolt the military dictator of the Protectorate, Lord High Admiral Jason Washburn ordered Rear Admiral St. Clair to direct his PDF to arrest several leaders of the Provisional Parliament and to confiscate firearms from the homes of the locals. St. Clair had no problem arresting the leaders but knew if he tried to confiscate guns from the local militia that it would end in bloodshed. He appealed his orders and had his men round up the military command and provisional parliament. He gathered them in the hangar of the Princess of Lisbon and explained that no one side could get their way without war. Thus he spent hours speaking to Colonel Welsh, the elected prime minister of the parliament and Lord High Admiral Washburn and after all night of negotiations, he brokered a compromise. There would be a bicameral legislature headed by an elected Prime Minister. The two houses would be like they were in Old England, a House of Commons and a House of Lords. The House of Commons would be comprised of representatives enlisted by enlisted and junior officer Englishmen and Native Mexicans. The House of Lords would complement of the twenty-one highest ranking officers on the military board. For a bill to become law it would have to be approved by both houses and signed into law by the Prime Minister. The Compromise of 2200 was approved by both parties and announced on March 14th to cheering crowds. Next came the drawing up of divisional lines and the constitutional convention as the new republic was pieced together. The Constitutional Convention The Constitutional Convention was the next step in the formation of the republican system. Delegates from all over the protectorate came to help deliberate. It was in the main hangar bay of the Princess of Lisbon which had been set up to serve as the floor for the House of Commons. Forty men of the roughly 2,500 citizens had been selected to write the constitution. This was made of nobles, natives, and poorer descendants of Englishmen. The drafting process was mainly a dispute between the division of power in the government. For weeks there was debate over if the House of Lords would be equivalent in legislative authority to the House of Commons. Initially, the Lords wanted the right to veto any bill passed by the House of Commons as well as the right to veto the people's selection for prime minister. The Lords, led by Washburn made negotiation challenging, giving very little to the natives and "white trash" Anglos led by Colonel Welsh and a native Mexican statesman and former member of the PDF, Vicente Vega. It took nearly two weeks just for a preamble to be agreed upon and after that came more disputes, while Washburn stuck to his guns, so did Welsh and Vega. They completely rejected the idea of Lords' veto and demanded the abolition of slavery and codified equality of all races, both sexes, and all religions before the law. Contention to this point came when Washburn then asked if the pagan religions of the tribals would be protected inside protectorate lands, thus allowing possibly hostile tribes to remain. While they did not do so happily, Vega and Welsh agreed to modify it so that "violent and deviant occult practices of belief and worship as performed by the tribalists of the Saltlands" would not be protected. With that gain achieved, Welsh and Vega next grappled on matters of taxation. It was the thinking of the native Mexicans and poor Anglos that wealth be taxed according to income with the richest paying the highest share, the Lords believed a fair taxation rate would be according to percentage of income. The compromise reached was that it would be up to each representative district, referred to as counties to collect their own taxes to deliver to the federal authority. The amount each district owed would be determined by the Deputy Director of the Treasury and be justified in a report submitted to each House of Parliament. The next rounds of victory went to the Lords who managed to secure that the Princess of Lisbon where many high-ranking officers still lived would have its own seat in the House of Commons, giving them a vote in the other house of parliament. They additionally managed to block a proposal to codify freedom of the press as a constitutional right, making published periodical criticism of the Protectorate, the PDF, or the nobility a crime. The institution of the nobility itself was protected as well, in exchange for guaranteed protection of habeas corpus, private property, prohibition of torture, and a right to a speedy trial with a jury of ones peers and a judge of non-noble birth, the nobility was endowed with a salary, an annual allotment of taxpayer pounds to be paid to every noble head of family each year. The Constitutional Convention was criticised as a haggling game, with some calling it a flea market of human rights and elitist privilege. Regardless, however, both sides came away happy and dissatisfied and on April 17th, 2200 the Constitution of the Royal Protectorate of Tampico was ratified. A month later a beloved "white trash" junior officer was elected Prime Minister, Robert Welsh. Expansion The first act Robert Welsh made upon his entrance into office was to pass the Police Regulation Act of 2201, meant to reel in the brutal Royal Tampico Constabulary who during the previous administration had committed numerous human rights violations, had used draconian tactics when dealing with peaceful protests, fired into crowds during riots and had used intimidation against the Protectorate's Hispanic and lower class Anglo population. Meanwhile, ordering the PDF to crush the local bandit and raider gangs that were harassing the Protectorate's frontier. However in Parliament and Tampico as a whole, the Protectorate was in a general state of disarray as Anti-government protests continued to occur, and new radical political organisations rose up. Most notably of these organisations was the Revolutionary Party, a far-left political party determined to overthrow the current government through whatever means necessary, much to the chagrin of Minister Welsh the party gained two seats in the House of Commons, his political base. In reaction to this, Robert created the Parliamentary Sub-committee on Terrorism and Security with the expressed duty of dealing with radical political organisations. The committee would later go on to ban several political action groups and parties, including the Revolutionary Party. With the Revolutionary Party dealt with, his actions had unexpected consequences with many lower class Anglos and Hispanics growing angry at the government's actions to repress freedom of speech, but conservatives in the Dominion Party support his actions. Fearing that he may be losing the support of his constituents he pushes forward his new social program, the General Welfare Program. The program offers monthly checks and food stamps to poor families, along with job training programs and a prototype public works program where workers are paid small salaries to support infrastructural development. Almost immediately Conservatives vetoed the program, calling it a free ride for the idle, with support for the program coming from Liberals and Socialists. It didn't help that most of the programs funding would be taken from the budgets of the PDF, further infuriating Dominionists. Meanwhile, with Parliament locked in debate the streets again explode as Right-wing reactionaries clash with left-wing extremists, the Constabulary was called in to help put down riots but the small police force can do little to curb the violence, forcing Minister Welsh to order the PDF to support the , . Eventually, the General Welfare Program (GWP) passed through Parliament after much deliberation, with the Conservatives being appeased with a 6 month limit for the supplied benefits, angering more welfare state oriented politicians. With so much turmoil in the streets, Robert hoped to unite the colony with a military victory, green lighting an operation Admiral St. Clair had been planning known as Operation Wellington. It called for the PDF to launch a limited offensive and seize control of a small sliver of land on the frontier of the Protectorate. When the operation was launched a month later, it was a massive success only cut short by the threat of raiders attacking frontier settlements in the Protectorate's Frontier District. With this victory the Protectorate celebrated, this operation is followed by another offensive called Python that seized more land out of The Saltlands, claiming it in the name of the Protectorate. What follows is a successful series of small campaigns, expanding the Protectorate's control in the region only being stopped by a tribe known as Las Aztecas. The Aztecas were a violent tribe of savages that inhabited the Saltlands and whose lineage could be traced back to the survivors of the Aztecs in the pre-war days. With a penchant for violence and a taste for using large blades and other melee weapons in combat, the Aztecas had quickly earned a fearsome reputation among PDF troops. However, the PDF's answer to these brutes was to set up a series of fortifications along the Protectorate's frontier, ranging from small fortresses to simple sandbag stockades with the expressed objective of keeping the tribals at bay and away from outlying settlements. The fight against the Aztecas kept most of the PDF on the frontier, leaving Tampico and the outlying settlements in the hands of the Tampico Grenadier Guards and the Constabulary. This allowed radicals within the Protectorate to restart their revolutionary movement, however as the movement picked up speed it neighbourhoods by moderates led by Jorge Cruces. Jorge's platform was simple, the Constitutional Convention may have made life easier for low-class whites but the Hispanic population was still primarily looked upon and treated as second class citizens, to add rumors had gotten out about various human rights violations the government had committed, among these was the allegations of prisoner abuse at PDF posts like Fort Comstock. Having heard these allegations many Hispanics and "white trash" whites rose up in mass protests against the Protectorate. In light of the protests, the PDF's desertion rate climbed. In response to these mass protests, Robert Welsh ordered the Constabulary to patrol the streets, with orders to enforce a newly instated curfew. This and violent measures taken by officers out on patrol led to a general breakdown in order in Tampico and soon many of the discontented citizens rose up in revolt against the government. Robert Welsh, promptly ordered the Grenadier Guards into Tampico to put down the protests and had the Constabulary don combat gear and take up their original role as a paramilitary force. The streets quickly became awash in martyr blood and soon the PDF forces and police found themselves on the wrong side of public opinion. With the violence spreading the rebels under Jorge Cruces united under the banner of the newly created Democratic Front and took off out of the city walls and into the countryside to begin their campaign against the PDF and Protectorate government. The Final act of the Welsh administration was Welsh's ordering of the PDF to put down the rebels at all costs, with roaring support from the Conservatives in the House of Lords, which was then followed by Robert Welsh stepping down. Replaced by Vincente Vega, he ruled for only three hours before himself resigning in shame. With no one at the helm Lord High Admiral Jason Washburn seized the reins and for the second time in the Protectorate's history, they were ruled by a Military government. In the face of this rising unrest, Rear Admiral George St. Clair stepped down, handing over command to Mony Comstock III. Going to Parliament as an MP in 2227, he hoped to try and help guide the Protectorate from there. The Native Rebellion Revolutionary fervour spread like wildfire through the Protectorate in 2232 as every disaffected citizen took up whatever weapon they had and rebelled against their local "oppressors". As a result tax collectors were tarred and feathered, Police officers shot at, provosts lynched and Judges killed for giving out unpopular convictions. However as these rabid rebel bands ran rampant, the Democratic Front bided their time, swelling their numbers and carefully choosing their first move. This opening move would come in the form of the attack on the small village of Downes. Downes like many towns in the Protectorate's countryside was a small bedroom community for labourers that went into work for the primarily white farmers and ranchers living in the areas centre; Oldham. Downes was an opportune target for the Democratic Front, it was governed by a Mayor, it had a Police Serjeant and two local deputies to police the town, a Provost and a Commissioner. Led by Jorge Cruces they rode into Downes and announced their presence, when the Police Sergeant saw what was happening he ducked into his office and emerged with one of his deputies, shotgun in hand. He and his deputy were cut down on the steps of the station, their khaki uniforms stained in blood. Several rebels stormed into the police office and began to looting the establishment, meanwhile the town Mayor, Provost and Commissioner heard the shots and decided that their jobs weren't worth their lives and waved a white flag. Jorge was a fair man and let the two retired Army veterans to surrender unmolested, and locked the two men up in the jail cell with the remaining Deputy and Commissioner. The revolution was in full swing and Downes was only the start for the Democratic Front, hopping around Oldham capturing the surrounding communities and then finally Oldham after weeks of fighting. The Provisional Government's days were numbered and as every passing community fell to the rebellion, the Government lost ever more control over its realm. Finally, the rebels broke through the Tampico Wall and got into the city itself where after weeks of heavy street fighting they managed to beat the remaining PDF forces within the walls (those on the frontier had either revolted themselves or had suffered mass desertion) into a corner. Amid this, the PDF's commander, after being advised by his former mentor; George St. Clair, decided to surrender his remaining troops to the Democratic Front, at the end of which Monty Comstock III pledged allegiance to the new revolutionary government of Jorge Cruces. Amid this collapse of government and her defenders, the remnants of the Provisional Government immediately sought terms with the Democratic Front, and the result was the utter collapse of the Provisional Government and the deposment of its despot; Lord High Admiral Washburn who was later hanged. With the government gone and the Democratic Front in complete control of the Protectorate, Jorge promptly held elections where he was chosen over his rivals to become the new Prime Minister. Creation of the Dominion The first move made by Jorge Cruces in his new administration was the reconciliation with the Protectorate's white population and ensuring that his government would get the support of all but the most radical of whites. Next, he began the reconstruction of the Protectorate and Tampico. Under the command of the newly promoted Monty Comstock III, the rebuilt PDF (a combination of the old army and the armed forces of the Democratic Front) began cleaning up the lawlessness that had taken hold on the countryside, along with driving the Aztecas backwards from the Protectorate's frontier, relieving the beleaguered frontier garrisons. In the meantime, Cruces also introduced a new budget plan that had the Protectorate's various funds split between internal development and defence spending, allowing the PDF to function on a limited scale and to foster the construction of infrastructural developments. Within these various developments were projects to develop the roads, manage farming and ranching operations efficiently, construct a railroad and to fund new housing projects as part of the General Welfare Program. All these developments culminated in the creation of the Royal Dominion as it is today. The Cruces Era Under the administration of Jorge Cruces, the Protectorate found itself in the middle of a Golden Era, although the hardline Conservatives in the House of Lords didn't always care for what Cruces pursued, many of them eventually came around to supporting him. During this time the Dominion was developed, roads that had once been only dirt or marked by gravel now were bricked and mortared, frontier towns grew as settlers left the crowded confines of Tampico, growing towns like Oldham and Santa Clara along with settling places once only inhabited by tribals or Ganaderos. The PDF was kept busy during this time by fighting a series of violent border wars with the Aztecas and with the less than friendly Ganadero Republics. The Ganaderos, a fiercely independent group of farmers and ranchers, were none too happy when their former British overlords were suddenly knocking on their door once again and thus had been fighting the British expansion since the PDF first arrived. To add they also made a concerted effort to rile up the local tribals in an attempt to slow the Protectorate's expansion, however many of these attempts were quashed by the PDF and their vigilant Constabulary counterparts. In the Protectorate's hinterlands missionaries of the Catholic and Anglican churches fanned out amongst the villages of tribals and slowly began to teach them English and convert them to Christianity, while the Ganadero population within the Protectorate had no choice but to accept their new rulers or move to one of the outlying Ganadero Republics and be looked on as a Victorian (Ganaderos loyal or sympathetic to the Protectorate). Within several years the developments of the Protectorate had truly begun to take effect as newly bricked roads allowed for greater foot traffic and thus allowed for the greater expansion of trade. With all the new developments; Cruces saw it necessary to redefine the voter districts. Tampico itself, with the majority of the Protectorate's population, was divided amongst New Halifax and Rochester, the outlying settlements were divided into the Oldham district and the Santa Clara district, with the remaining outlying settlements, were grouped into the Frontier District. These districts were then divided into Counties, which were again used as voting blocks and a basis for local government. For the Frontier District, its seat of power is the infamous Fort Comstock, Santa Clara and Oldham were the seats of their districts. However by 2250, Jorge Cruces had fallen ill and after another two months of service he died of Yellow Fever, his successor; Esigones Caldrone took over as the Prime Minister and ushered in the era known as the Failing Five. The Failing Five Esigones was a radical in his youth, having joined the "Brown Berets" a radical socialist youth organisation that was broken up by the Constabulary in 2221. However, his hardline views didn't die with the Brown Berets and he carried them through the Nativist Revolt and through his tenure as First Secretary of State and into his brief reign as Prime Minister of the Protectorate. In his time as Prime Minister of the Protectorate, he attempted to pass through parliament several bills that would grant the government the ability to spy on its citizens and to perform raids on said citizens without the written consent of a Bailiff. When the Conservatives in the House of Lords vetoed the act, Esigones responded by trying to pass an act that nullified the House of Lords' veto power. This was followed by a multi-partisan bill to hold early elections, both sides backed down before their respective acts could go anywhere. Outside of these constitutional infringements, Esigones attempted to nationalise the Protectorate's Cattle industry, an action that was opposed universally by the House of Commons and Lords alike. After the failed nationalisation, Esigones decided to content himself by sinking the majority of his government's budget and tax revenues into domestic development projects and increasing funding to the General Welfare Program. The PDF lost a great deal of its funding and as a result, many officers had to dip into their own pockets to help pay their soldier's salaries, with most of the money put towards interior development pushed towards road construction and the start of the Protectorate's first railroad. However, Esignones days in office were numbered as he passed an act (with great resistance) through parliament that effectively disarmed the Constabulary and cut their salaries in half. The money would supposedly be going towards programs to help the poor, but it was discovered that a large chunk of the funds were being funnelled to the Revolutionary Party. Esigones was promptly voted out of office and put on trial for corruption. Meanwhile, the man to succeed him was Alexander Millton, a radical Tory of the Dominion Party and one of the remaining politicians from the coalition government Jorge Cruces had created after the Native Revolt. Alexander Millton entered office with great support from the populace of the Protectorate, who had since grown tired of big government from the years under Esigones. In his initial address to Parliament, he promised to return Christian morality and virtue to the Protectorate, maintain Law and Order, and expand the realm of the Protectorate. However, his first act of congress was to cut funding to certain social programs and to the interior development and then push all the funding back into defence spending. To add he introduced into Parliament an act that made military service obligatory for all males of age 18 for three years. An act that made it through the House of Lords but hardly got half the votes necessary to pass in the House of Commons and the two sides fought until ultimately voting the act down. However by this point, Alexander had already passed a new budget proposal that helped fund the Provisional Maritime Patrol Force, a naval militia meant to keep Tampico harbour safe. As well he enacted a series of duties and tariffs on foreign commodities, meant to protect domestic industry. On the social spectrum Alexander defunded the General Welfare Program and took a large chunk of funding from interior development projects, increased police powers to enforce the law and infringed upon the ability of the average citizen from expressing their freedom of speech and pushed an act through Parliament that subsidized such industries as ranching and farming, allowing powerful farmers and ranchers to outperform their competitors and form cartels. However in 2255, he was voted out of office in favour of a radical left winger, who was promptly replaced by the equal parts radical right winger and the process continued until the year 2258 came along and an MP from the House of Commons, named Ronald Daniels took power. The Danielist Years Boris Daniels, the son of Rear Admiral Baird Daniels, First Lord of New Halifax who had once sat upon the Admiralty Council with such men as Lord High Admiral Washburn and Rear Admiral George St. Clair, ruling over Tampico in its early days. However, when Lord Halifax and the rest of the Admiralty Council were stripped of their powers Lord Halifax resigned from the PDF and made a fortune selling scrap, expounding his traditionalist beliefs to his son. Ronald followed his father's beliefs closely and when he came of ageinterracialhe got himself elected to the House of Commons as an MP from Oldham on the Dominion Party ticket. Growing in prominence within the Dominion Party, he earned himself the position of Prime Minister within the Dominion Party's shadow government, until his election to the office 2260. From his position of power, he nationalised all major industries and promptly began to slowly peel away the fabric of liberty within the Protectorate. The citizenry of the Protectorate, after having nearly a decade of political turmoil and economic hardships were simply happy to have some stability brought to their troubled home. However, the effects of Ronald's crackdowns were felt almost immediately as protests were usually met with riot police. By the time 2262 had rolled around the Protectorate was virtually a police state. On the frontier where the law was laxer or at the very least harder to enforce, dissent began to spread as rumours of atrocities committed by the government within Tampico resounded throughout the territory. Even within the PDF murmurs of dissent began to form as the government had officers of questionable loyalty or from veterans of the Democratic Front arrested and hauled off to tribunals for swift sentencing. However, the PDF was kept busy by a series of offensives into the Saltlands that were intended to drive back the Aztecas and expand the Protecorate, with his sights set on the Cattle Country Ronald, now known as the Premier, kept the PDF fighting their way North. The tipping point came in 2267 when on orders from Prime Minister Daniels, the Tampico Guard Grenadiers were ordered to march into Parliament and arrest the MPs and Lords alike, thus solidifying Tampico under the control of Boris, who had now taken to calling himself, "The Premier." Upon receiving their orders, the Guards plainly refused to follow through. Instead, they turned their guns on The Premier and his administration, arresting key ring leaders and Boris himself, setting up a temporary government in their stead. Called the Temporary Constitutional Restoration Board it was chaired by a collection of officers and politicians, namely from the newly formed Liberal Party, Democratic Front and the more liberal members of the Dominion Party. Chaired by Colonel Hayden Dempsey they recalled the PDF and promptly held elections to form a new government. The Tallmadge Administration The resulting election was a massive election for the new Liberal Party, expounding the ideals of classical liberalism, the Liberal Party formed a coalition government with the Dominion Party, ushering in an era of peace for the Protectorate. Upon his election into office, he ordered the release of the various political prisoners, arrested by Daniels, and promptly placed The Premier and his lackeys on trial before the High Court, ending in their sentencing to death and imprisonment. For the next ten years, the Tallmadge Administration would introduce a series of reforms to the Protectorate, introducing and passing an amendment to the Constitution protecting Freedom of speech and expression, passing laws ensuring the citizenry's right to Property, along with instituting reforms promoting economic liberalism and free trade. Alongside these reforms, Henry formally abolished the Parliamentary Sub-committee on Terrorism and Security, citing its rampant violation of the rights of the citizens. neighbourhoods This massive omnibus bill, passed through the House of Commons, despite the protests of Dominion Party's Tory wing, and cut federal expenditures in half. However, the massive agricultural cartels, and industrial monopolies that had formed remained, and due to their size and power were able to maintain their monopolies, thus prompting Henry to draft what would become the Tallmadge Anti-trust Act, giving the Deputy Director of Treasury in conjunction with the Lord Chief Justice of the High Court the ability to bring suits against entities deemed to be monopolistic in nature. However this bill split the House of Commons, as some felt the act gave the central government entirely too much power, a concern that was echoed throughout most of Henry's own Liberal party, the Dominion Party was once again split as radical Tories decried the act as opening up the markets to the savagery of competition, while more liberal minded dominionists supported the move towards more liberal economic policy. While the Socialists of the Labor Party argued the bill didn't go far enough, that it should allow the government to place controls on certain industries, such as price controls and production quotas while making more concessions to allow labour unions a free pass. This bickering ended with a three-way compromise with the bill allowing for some monopolies, like that of the arms industry to remain due to the technical constraints of the industries, as well it gave the Deputy Director of Treasury the ability to place themselves on the board of directors of any industry deemed to be of strategic national importance (i.e steel and water industries) and guide the activities of said industry and establish price controls. Further reforms came to the General Welfare Program, as it was streamlined into a simple lump sum system, giving a single check to families in need, rather than breaking up their cash allowance into individual checks meant only for certain items, giving more power back to the individual. The most recent reform passed by Parliament was the abolition of the Draft in 2283. This came after the conclusion of a long series of vicious conflicts with native tribes on the fringes of the Dominion, in which half trained draftees were slaughtered by bushwacking tribals. For his many efforts at liberalising the Protectorate, Prime Minister Tallmadge has earned the nickname; The Great Reformer. The Tallmadge administration has been maintained despite the Liberal-Dominionist Coalition losing seats to the Democratic Front and Labor Party in recent elections. Despite the loss of some seats, the Tallmadge government continues to move forward with a plan to create a unified market with the various Ganadero republics. Government Legislative The legislator of the Protectorate consists of a bi-cameral Parliament consisting of the House of Commons and House of Lords. House of Commons As of currently, there are forty-two MPs making up the House of Commons. Unlike the House of Lord, the seats in the House of Commons are elected by the populace via a Two-round system of voting. The MPs themselves represent the various Districts of the Protectorate, with the number of MPs per district be apportioned according to the population of each District. As well, the MPs usually are elected to represent their individual countries and the citizens within them. The House of Commons itself has no specific duties beyond the proper representation of the people. The House of Commons is presided over by the Speaker of the House of Commons, a position filled by a chosen member of the majority party, who is voted into their position by their fellow partisans. Like the House of Lords, a bill may be introduced in the House of Commons by a coalition of MPs or by singular members, with each bill getting exactly thirty minutes for deliberation, followed by a vote. However, a bill introduced by a single MP, known as a Private Member's Bill, is only allotted ten minutes for deliberation, and can be thrown out at any time by the Speaker, with the support of half of the MPs. Unlike the House of Lords, the MPs of the House of Commons reserve the right to veto any bill sent to them by the House of Lords, as well they have the ability, albeit under very specific circumstances, to overrule the Prime Minister, as part of the legislative check on the Executive. As well all nominations to the High Court, must be approved by a two-thirds majority in the House of Commons, part of their check on the Judiciary. House of Lords There are twenty-one peers that make up the House of Lords, of which thirteen are Lords Temporal. These Lords are descendants from the original twenty-one Lords, and make up the majority of the House, it is from their ranks that the four Lords Jurist are selected along with the Lord Chancellor. The four remaining slots are filled with the Burgher Lords, the recent arrivals to the House of Lords, the four Burgher Lords have arisen from the ashes of aristocratic families that have either fallen out of favour, lost their money, or in the case of the Washburns, executed. The term Burgher had been applied by the older generations of Lords as a pejorative for the new Lord's lack of aristocratic background, rather having attained their positions either through their support of the revolutionaries, or pure financial gain. The various duties of the Lords include, voting in the Lord High Admiral, the commander in chief of the PDF, and the Lord High Constable, the interracial Royal Tampico Constabulary. For the Lords Jurist they have been selected by their fellow Lords for their knowledge of legal matters, and thus have the special duty of auditing the High Court along with recommending nominees for the court to the Prime Minister. labour Once the deliberation has concluded, the bill is then voted upon and if it passed, it is sent to the House of Commons and then onto the Prime Minister. However, unlike the House of Commons, the Lords may not veto a bill passed by the House of Commons, with the exception being Money Bills, changes to the Constitution, and budgetary plans. As well, while individual Lords may put forth a bill, known as a Lord's Bill, these are only given ten minutes of deliberation rather than the usual thirty, and may be thrown out by either the Lords or House of Commons if not sufficiently backed. It is also an unwritten rule within the Protectorate, that while a Lord could become Prime Minister, this is generally looked down upon by all but the most radical Tories and thus has been quietly written away by the Lords and MPs alike. Of the twenty-one seats in the House of Lords, only seventeen are partisan, with the four Lords Jurist positions meant to be non-partisan seats, due to their essential nature to the checks and balances system. Judicial The judicial system of the Royal Protectorate is broken down into four tiers, with each possessing more authority and whose's jurisdiction grows in ascending order. The Judicial system of the Protectorate is generally in line with Common Law systems. High Court The High Court is the highest court of law in the Protectorate. Established in 2200 with the signing of the Protectorate's Constitution, giving the High Court the power to rule over all cases brought before them, pertaining to the Constitution or its principles. As well the High Court rules on cases dealing with such high crimes as treason, assassination, and impeachment of politicians. The Court is made up of five Lord Justices, all of whom are selected from the House of Lords by the Prime Minister and approved by a two-thirds vote by the House of Commons. These men and women are overseen by the Lord Chief Justice, the most senior member of the court. The High Court also acts as part of the checks and balance system that makes up the Protectorate's governing system, being possessed of the ability to declare an act of Parliament to be unconstitutional or in violation of the spirit of its principles, despite this duty the court has occasionally ruled in controversial manners, most notably when the court, under Lord Chief Justice Morgan O'Hanrahan upheld Lord High Admiral Jason Washburn's suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus in 2231. This ruling was later reversed by the court under Lord Chief Justice Omar Jimenez. This was the first time since the time of William Bainbridge, the first Lord Chief Justice that the court ruled in a controversial manner. District Court There are five established District courts in the Dominion, each covering one of the five voting districts; New Halifax, Rochester, Santa Clara, Oldham and the Frontier District. These courts deal mostly with higher crimes than the Circuit or Commissioner's courts, such as murder, drug trafficking, violation of contract, fraud, counterfeiting, rape and so on. Each court is overseen by a District Judge, who is appointed by the Prime Minister and sits at his post for life. Notable District Court Judges include, Anthony Garret and Ronald Ortiz. Circuit Court The nine circuit courts of the Dominion serve as local trial courts for misdemeanours and other low-level crimes such as, vandalism, trespassing, theft or destruction of property, disturbing the peace, and assault. Typically there is no set courthouse which a circuit judge uses for trials, rather the Circuit judge travels from town to town in order to oversee trials. In terms of the actual breakdown of the various circuit courts, each judge is given jurisdiction over a set grouping of counties that make up the five districts, with the Frontier District possessing three circuits, Santa Clara and Oldham each have one circuit court, with New Halifax and Rochester each possessing two circuits each. Notable Circuit Judges include Judge Granville Hyatt of the ninth circuit court, and former Judge, Park Rhee Yi, noted for being one of the few Asian judges in the Dominion. Commissioner's Court Commissioner's Court is the lowest judicial court in the Protectorate's system, yet they are the most numerous with each county possessing one. The duties of the Commissioner's Court is to rule on infractions and low-level violations such as public drunkenness, and failure to settle a debt, although few rulings in Commissioner's Court result in jail time, such infractions such as public nudity, or failure to pay a debt could result in a few hours of hard labor or in the case of debt, being forced to pay off said debt. Notable Commissioners include Gareth O'Malley of County Leister in the Oldham District. Executive The Prime Minister makes up the main figure in the Executive branch of the Protectorate's government. Selected from within their party by his fellow partisans his job, beyond the proper leadership of the Protectorate, the Prime Minister must submit his nominations to the High Court for a vote. As well the Prime Minister maintains the ability to veto any bill passed by the houses, along with signing such a bill into law. Royal Tampico Constabulary The Royal Tampico Constabulary was founded in 2167 under the name the Temporary Military Security Directorate, this last until the year 2170 when the job of patrolling the streets of Tampico were passed from the PDF's Provost Corp to a civilian agency. The Constabulary has had a checkered history of abuses and violence, including the infamous Easter Day massacre when a group of Hispanic civil rights protesters were fired on by constables. However, the RTC was brought to heel in 2201 with the passage of the Police Regulation Act by the Welsh Administration, making the officers of the RTC legally liable for their behaviour. The officers of the RTC are distinguishable by their khaki uniforms, armed with a service revolver and baton, the constables are in charge of patrolling the streets of Tampico and the larger outlying settlements, often times supporting locally elected lawmen. In addition to patrolling the streets the constabulary is served with the job of enforcing laws prohibiting the use of chems, and banning such practices as prostitution and illegal gambling, along with serving warrants handed down from the courts and riot control. Military The Protectorate's main military force comes from the Provisional Defense Force, formed in the same year as the Protectorate itself, the PDF acts as both the defensive and offensive arm of the Protectorate. Founded by Rear Admiral George St. Clair in 2167 the PDF was originally made up of primarily the HMS Princess of Lisbon's ''compliment of Royal Marines. However, over the years, the PDF evolved into a much more native force, as the original group of Royal Marines were supplemented with locally raised combat and support units. For a large chunk of its history the PDF was segregated, often with coloured units being commanded by white officers and NCOs, yet after the rise of Jorge Cruces the PDF was integrated and benefited as a fighting force as a result. In the present day, the PDF is an all-volunteer force, ever since the abolition of the Draft in 2283 by Prime Minister Henry Tallmadge. Economy Since its inception, the Protectorate has maintained a mixed to ''laissez-faire economy, with, at various times, industries like the Railway, and mail service being state-owned and operated. At the start of the Protectorate's history and during its developmental stages the economy of the Protectorate was under strict regulation and control, with many economic decisions being made by a central planning board. This planning board decided everything from water and food distribution, the breakdown of land usage, and established production quotas. As a result of this central planning, the Protectorate suffered frequent shortages as a result of it centrally planned economy. However, after the transition to representative government, the economy was slowly liberalised as property rights were secured by the Constitution, thus allowing the citizenry to use and develop the means at their disposal in whatever manner they saw fit. Yet the political turmoil that wracked the Protectorate during its early history prevented any meaningful development of the economy out of its basic, agrarian state. However once the violence had subsided, and with greater liberalizations in the economy, thanks to the efforts of men like Jorge Cruces and his fellow liberals, manufacturing, commercial ranching and farming, and the fishing industry took off, this coupled with the turn towards free trade brought about an era of economic prosperity to the Royal Dominion, and with the further deregulatory measures of the Tallmadge administration this prosperity is likely to continue. In terms of taxation, there only exists two federal taxes, a flat tax, and a negative income tax. Both sit at a rate of about 15% and 10% respectively, with the negative income tax meant to help provide for those families in need and the flat rate tax simply meant to provide for the various government expenditures. At varying times in its history, mostly under Tory government, taxes have been imposed on such things as cigarettes, alcohol, property, and inheritance, such taxes have since been repealed by the Liberal-Dominionist-Democratic Coalition that currently rules Parliament. The official currency of Protectorate is the Pound Sterling, introduced upon the arrival of the English settlers in Tampico the Pound has been the accepted currency of the realm ever since. However, the Pound itself is a commodity currency, backed by the value of silver mined within the Protectorate, meaning that a person could go to a bank and exchange notes for their equal value in silver. The Bottle cap and Peso are both considered to be acceptable currencies within the Protectorate and are often accepted by private vendors, yet both the Bottle cap and the Peso cannot be exchanged for silver. Control of currency falls to His Majesty's Treasury, with the Director of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer both overseeing its management. The Treasury controls both the supply of notes in circulation, along with exchange rates, which as of currently are free floating. Counterfeiting is often a problem in the Protectorate, however policing of such activity is a duty delegated to the Treasury, rather than a law enforcement body, giving the Treasury the ability to commission officers to deal with issues such as counterfeiting, and arbitrary manipulation. In the past in order for one to open up a business in the Protectorate one would have to go through the Department of Labour and attain a license or permit, along with accumulating the necessary amount of capital, and labour to run such a business. Yet in recent years this process has been streamlined. As part of Prime Minister Tallmadge's omnibus bill, the licensing process that potential business owners, and workers as a whole must go through has been completely removed in favour of a certification process. The difference being, one can be criminally prosecuted if they work in protesters profession without a license, without a certificate, the most that will happen is the worker, or businessmen will look unprofessional, yet they can still work in their chosen field. For business owners the licensing process has been completely removed, allowing those men who have the means to open a business to do so, unfettered by state or union intervention and regulation. A business certificate or certification of competence can be attained both from public or private entities. Culture The English citizenry of the Protectorate brought over with them their distinctive English mannerism combined with a military precision, as most are descended from military personnel, has created a very reserved, polite and stoic culture among the Anglos of all stripes. Many are very traditional minded, with only the younger generation having moved away from their parent's very conservative sensibilities, with many of the younger generation having combined their parent's predisposition to economic liberalism with an open attitude towards social issues. Despite this, the Anglos are still a very pious bunch, Sunday morning church attendance is a norm among the Anglos, with the upper crust Anglos typically being Protestant, while the lower class tend to be Catholic. Such social issues as homosexuality, interracial marriage and infidelity are generally viewed with disdain by the older generations, many of whom having lived when many townships had sodomy and Sunday laws, and the younger generations being split in their acceptance of such things, however most are willing to tolerate the existence of such groups and activities, with the most telling example of this being, Rodney Thorpe, the openly gay mayor of Oldham, who was voted into office in 2281 on the Liberal Party ticket, further solidifying their majority in that District. The Hispanic population of the Protectorate makes up the majority of the Protectorate's population. Hispanics first came in contact with the English when the first scouts came ashore from the HMS ''Princess of Lisbon ''and encountered tribes of primitive tribals, speaking a bastardised version of English and Spanish. Since then, with the ever increasing expansion of the Protectorate, more and more Hispanic settlements and tribes have been brought into the Protectorate's fold, adding to their population, and prevalence within the Protectorate. During the Protectorate's early years of racial discrimination and violence, many Hispanics banded together into civil rights and self-defense groups, meant to combat and prevent government coercion of their communities. These ad hoc gangs built a very strong bond within Hispanic neighborhoods that translated to a communal form of altruism, supported by advancements in the political realm, many of these close-knit communities would later become affluent areas. The leading example being the town of Santa Clara. To add, and as much as cultural conservatives within the Dominion Party hate to admit it, Hispanics have had a major effect on the history of the Protectorate. Jorge Cruces led the Native rebellion, and the Democratic Front, has at one point been the majority party in the House of Commons, and currently is one of the largest parties in the Protectorate currently. Category:Places Category:Mexico Category:Tamaulipas Category:Communities